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To avoid chaos caused by war, nearly 20,000 cases of cultural relics from the Forbidden City in Beijing were moved southward in the 1930s. Parts of the imperial collection were then relocated to Waishuanghsi in Taipei.

Many people do not know that there are two palace museums in China: one in Beijing and another in Taipei.

WHEN I saw the Taipei Palace Museum for the first time, I had feelings beyond description, thinking it was impossible for me to approach it,” said Hu Xiao.

In 2003, Hu Xiao visited Taiwan with the Jiuzhou Cultural Communication Center. After properly arranging his work, he went to the Palace Museum at Waishuanghsi, in Taipeis suburbs. He recalls, “The museum was packed with jostling crowds. Some primary and middle school teachers were giving lessons. There was a constant stream of student visitors. There were also tourists from the Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe. There were people of different skin colors from different continents, but no visitors from the Chinese mainland.” At that time, Taiwan was not open to tourists from the mainland, and the Palace Museum in Taipei was a mysterious place for them.

In the exhibition hall Hu Xiao saw rare cultural relics such as Maogong Ding, a piece of bronze ware from the late Western Zhou Dynasty, and porcelains of enamel colors. “I had only seen these things in photos. When I saw them in reality, I was very excited.”

It was during that tour Hu Xiao and his party visited some specialists and scholars working in the Taipei Palace Museum, and built initial ties, foreshadowing the shooting of a documentary entitled Taipei Palace Museum three years later. Hu Xiao, who served as the documentarys chief authoring officer, says frankly, “The process was tortuous and difficult, and rather dramatic. Without these people, it would have been impossible for us to complete this documentary. They provided huge support for us.”

After two years work, the 12-episode documentary was finally released, revealing the 70-odd year history of the museum. It has gone far beyond a documentary in significance.

From Beijing to Taipei

Construction of the Taipei Palace Museum was completed in 1965. Though relatively young, it is as famous as the Palace Museum in Beijing, occupying an important place among the museums of the world, since it houses a collection of 650,000 rare cultural relics. Most of them came from the Palace Museum in Beijing, and are known as the “most precious treasures of the nation.”

Talking about the history of the Taipei Palace Museum reminds people of the relocation of the cultural treasures and the destiny of the people involved in the move. Hu Xiao said that three elements run through the documentary: cultural relics, people (those who experienced the cultural relics relocation, as well as their descendants and subordinates, and those now working in the Palace Museum), and history. The destiny of the people and the cultural relics is inseparable. The whole documentary is a bit like a TV drama series. In fact, the real history is more tortuous than a TV drama.

In 1931, Japan launched its initial invasion of China. Within three months the three northeastern provinces were occupied by the invaders. The Palace Museum in Beijing was only a few hundred kilometers from the fighting, so plans were drawn up to move the collection south. The preparatory work lasted more than a year. On the evening of February 5, 1933, 19,557 cases of cultural relics headed to Nanjing.

Na Zhiliang, aged 25, was one of the staff escorting the precious cargo. In 1982, when interviewed by the Sunday Times, he recalled, “The cultural relics were transported on scores of flatbed carts to the railway station, escorted by troops. Along the way were many policemen and soldiers. The carts drove along the familiar streets, which were empty of pedestrians. The streets were silent except for the rumbling of the carts, making people feel queer.”

The loaded train then went south to Nanjing, where a small number of the relics stayed. Most, however, were shipped upriver to the British and French concessions in Shanghai. Four years later, when the Chaotian Palace branch of the Palace Museum was established in Nanjing, all the cultural relics that had been moved south were placed there.

In 1937 Japan launched a full-blown invasion of China and the country was plunged into war. The cultural relics in Chaotian Palace were divided into three groups and relocated to avoid the ravages of the conflict. Despite ever present danger, no losses or damage occurred during the move.

After a decade, in the spring of 1947, the three groups of cultural relics and their escorts gathered in Chongqing, and once again went back along the Yangtze River to Nanjings Chaotian Palace. There the cases were opened, the cultural relics sorted, and temporary exhibition halls set up.

The best of the collection was not to stay long in Nanjing however. Following the defeat of the Kuomintang in the Liberation War, some of the cultural relics were transported to Taiwan. “The progress of history, after a torrential surge, returns to a quiet flow. Seventy-five years ago…countless national treasures were moved quietly away; 60 years ago, on a cold winter day, the best part of the collection was moved to a beautiful island,” wrote Hu Xiao in an article in December 2008.

Limited by conditions, the escorts of the cultural relics had to select 2,972 cases for transportation to Taiwan from the collection of 19,557 cases. The cases that went included famous paintings and calligraphic works, books of the imperial library, and the most exquisite Song Dynasty porcelains. In 1965, construction of the Taipei Palace Museum was completed, and these cultural relics were relocated there, where they have stayed ever since.

Homesickness Behind the Cultural Relics

Seventy-five years are but a short moment in the existence of these cultural relics, but to a person its a lifetime. Behind the journey of these precious items is the joy, sorrow and homesickness of the guardians. In interviewing the documentarys chief director Zhou Bing, chief authoring officer Hu Xiao and the director of the Calligraphy Episode Zhu Jie, several people who experienced the relocation of the cultural relics were repeatedly mentioned. Among them was Zhuang Yan.

Starting in 1933, Zhuang Yan, a member of the Palace Museum staff in Beijing, escorted the cultural relics southward, taking his family with him. Eventually he escorted more than 600,000 pieces to Taiwan.

When they went, many people did not bring their wives and children. After Zhuang Yan arrived in Taiwan, he did not go to Taipei directly, but settled his family in Taichung. He bought the simplest furniture, and found a shabby room, because he thought they would be going back to the mainland any time.

After the cultural relics arrived in Taiwan, they were stored at Beigou, in Wufeng Township of Taichung for 15 years. Zhuang Yan was with them all this time. The living conditions were hard, but he, like other scholars who were with him, maintained the optimism of Chinese intellectuals.

In the 20 years between his arrival in Taiwan and his retirement, Zhuang Yan was always alongside the priceless relics. He was promoted from director, curator to vice-president of the Taipei Palace Museum. In an autobiographical article he wrote, “I entered the Forbidden City when Emperor Xuantong was driven out. I was not an emperor, but a veteran palace attendant who safeguarded cultural relics and national treasures… From 1925, when I became a staff member of the Palace Museum, to 1969, when I retired from the position of vice-president of the Palace Museum, I never left the Palace Museum. It is no exaggeration to say I have been faithful to it to the end.”

In 1980 Zhuang Yan passed away in Taipei. Zhu Jie and his colleagues interviewed his son Zhuang Ling, who said his father had several unfulfilled wishes. One was the reunification of the Precious Collection of Stone Moat, also known as Sanxitang (Hall of Three Rare Treasures) Calligraphy, which totals 236 pieces in 32 volumes and contains Wang Xizhis Kuaixueshiqing (Sunny After a Pleasant Snowfall), Wang Xuns Boyuan, and Wang Xianzhis Mid-Autumn. The first of these is housed in Taipei, while the latter two are in Beijing. Zhuang Yan hoped that some day the three treasures would be reunited. Another regret is that he did not bring the cultural relics back to the Palace Museum in Beijing.

“We found a video of Zhuang Yan, who talked in Beijing dialect, since he was a native of the capital. Seeing his image and hearing his voice you realize that even though this man could not go back to Beijing, theres something unchanged which is especially moving,” says Zhu Jie with deep emotion.

The documentary also mentions Liang Tingwei and his family. Both Liang Tingwei and his son Liang Kuangzhong were on the staff of the Palace Museum in Beijing before liberation in 1949, and they escorted the cultural relics to Nanjing. On the eve of liberation, Liang Tingwei was put in charge of escorting the cultural relics to Taiwan, while his son was ordered to look after the items remaining in Nanjing. In January 1949, Liang Tingwei boarded the ship for Taiwan, with his wife and two younger sons and Liang Kuangzhongs oldest son Liang Esheng. The family was never reunited. By the time Liang Kuangzhong finally heard of his parents fate in the 1980s, both had died.

Liang Kuangzhongs second son Liang Jinsheng now serves as the chief of the Cultural Relics Management Section of the Palace Museum in Beijing. His office is near the Wenyuan (Literary Profundity) Chamber in the Forbidden City, where The Complete Library of Four Branches of Books (Si Ku Quan Shu) was housed. Sixty years ago, it was from here that his grandfather Liang Tingwei escorted this huge collection of volumes to Taiwan.

Cultural Consistency on Both Sides of the Strait

In October 2008, when the documentary crew was doing its last shoot in Taipeis Palace Museum, a Special Exhibition of Jin and Tang Calligraphy was being held there.

Zhou Bing, chief director of the documentary, talked about two scenes that especially moved him. One involved a young man taking his toddler around the exhibition. The father pushed a pram around and explained each exhibit to his son. Another scene saw a college student explaining a piece of calligraphy to his fellow schoolmates. When he talked about the last few lines of the work, he was so excited he was almostovercome with emotion.

“I felt quite ashamed when I was listening to his explanations. I spent quite a long time shooting the documentary in the Taipei Palace Museum, but I am still not familiar with many of the cultural relics. My impression is that at least in Taipei, the locals visit the Palace Museum many times over the course of their lives, whether they are in kindergarten, primary school, high school, or university. They regard it as an educational base of traditional culture,” says Zhou Bing.

Besides having worldwide fame, the Taipei Palace Museum has become a classroom for Taiwan inhabitants to learn traditional culture, and in the process has become an indispensable part of the local culture. It represents inherited traditional culture and aesthetics, influencing the growth of many young Taiwanese people.

Although the Beijing Palace Museum and the Taipei Palace Museum are located far apart, they both have the important task of spreading Chinese culture.

The end of the documentary features an animated sequence: The katydid on the jadeite cabbage, a cultural relic housed in the Taipei Palace Museum, jumps across the Taiwan Strait and falls into the Beijing Palace Museum. Although it is an imaginary scene, it reflects peoples real wishes.